CAMANO ISLAND — After coming up 76 votes shy of the required super majority needed to fund a permanent library facility, the future of the Camano Island Library is now in the hands of the Sno-Isle Libraries Board of Trustees.
No ballots are left to count at the Island County Auditor’s Office, said elections specialist Michele Reagan after the totals were posted at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Nineteen ballots from Camano Island have disputed signatures, but even if all of those people resolve their signature problems and vote for Proposition 2, they still wouldn’t be enough to change the outcome. And it is doubtful that enough ballots are still coming by mail to change it either.
Of the 5,720 voters who cast ballots on Proposition 1, establishing a taxing district for a library, 3,477 voted “yes” for 60.79 percent of the vote. Of the 5,710 voters who made a choice on Proposition 2, which would have issued bonds to fund the library, 3,350 voted “yes” for 58.67 percent, short of the 60 percent required for passage.
“It is clear that a majority of voters want a library,” Sno-Isle spokesman Ken Harvey said. “It’s heartbreaking for those who campaigned for it, to come that close to getting it.”
At its meeting in September, the Sno-Isle trustees will meet to decide what to do about serving library patrons on Camano Island, Harvey said.
The lease on the building that currently houses the Camano library pilot project is up next spring. The earliest the funding issue could be placed on the ballot again is February or April.
“I think Sno-Isle Libraries will assess whether there was voter confusion or try to figure out why more people voted for the first proposition than the second,” Harvey said.
Camano’s pilot project library has been serving people on the island since 2007 in a 1,800-square-foot store front at Terry’s Corner.
The $2.3 million bond issue for new construction at the site of the former Island Restaurant would have been paid by taxes over a 10-year period at the rate of about $22.50 a year for the owner of a $250,000 home.
A survey commissioned by Sno-Isle showed that two-thirds of Camano’s population of 15,600 people use the library and that most of those people want a bigger, permanent library.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.